CA: State's political watchdog has far fewer teeth In 15 years, staff is reduced one-third - FPPC

SFGate.com ^ | 4/27/06 | Tom Chorneau

[NormsRevenge]

Sacramento -- The state's political watchdog agency has one-third fewer employees today than it did in 1990 to carry out its mandate of regulating and prosecuting scofflaws.

Budget cuts in recent years have hit the Fair Political Practices Commission so hard that it has been forced to cut staff and limit its activities. Things got so bad last fall that the agency was forced to prematurely drop 225 investigations of alleged ethics violations.

Still, lawmakers don't seem to be in any rush to revitalize the commission and restore its budget.

A bill that would add $2 million to the commission's $7 million budget next year and provide for automatic increases to give the agency some independence has languished since being introduced earlier this year.

On Wednesday, a related request to give the agency the additional money but not the automatic yearly increases was set aside by a key budget committee, and its future is uncertain.

The lack of action on both proposals has some activities concerned about the motivation of lawmakers.

"The fact that the Legislature has to approve the budget for an agency that oversees their activities is kind of a conflict of interest," said Theis Finlev, spokesman for California Common Cause.

"That the FPPC was forced to drop several hundred cases because they lacked the staff to investigate means that the public is not being protected," he said. "What we are asking for here is $9 million -- which is less than one-100th of the state budget."

Created after the Watergate scandal in the mid-1970s, the commission regulates the activities of more than 100,000 public officials statewide, including the Legislature, governor and other constitutional officers. It also prosecutes violators and serves as the primary depository of thousands of disclosure reports.

[NormsRevenge]

Still, lawmakers scofflaws don't seem to be in any rush to revitalize the commission and restore its budget.

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lawmakers? more like imbeciles holding the pursestrings to the agency that is charged to keep them in line.

Who blocks the funding needed to police this backyard circus? A majority are deRats , repeat, demRats.

[NormsRevenge]

Some threads FRom the FR archives

FPPC

[EagleUSA]

Still, lawmakers scofflaws don't seem to be in any rush to revitalize the commission and restore its budget.
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The last thing the socialists running California want, is any form of legal or functional accountability.

[ExTexasRedhead]

Thanks to Assembly Liberals, the State of California is already in the toilet bowl and soon to be flushed by whomever becomes governor.